Kaduna (Nigeria) – President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has ordered his country’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) commence implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) by paying all government revenues, incomes and other receipts into a designated account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The directive indicates that the practice is specifically to promote transparency and facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution.
A statement by Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media & Publicity, Laolu Akande says,
“Henceforth, all receipts due to the Federal Government or any of its agencies must be paid into TSA or designated accounts maintained and operated in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), except otherwise expressly approved.”
“This presidential directive would end the previous public accounting situation of several fragmented accounts for government revenues, incomes and receipts, which in the recent past has meant the loss or leakages of legitimate income meant for the federation account.
President Buhari in june told state governors that all revenues prescribed for lodgement into the federation account will be treated as such under his watch and that he will ensure strict compliance with all relevant laws on accounting, allocation and disbursement.
“Since then the presidency has worked with relevant agencies of the federal government to evolve this policy directive.” The statement says.
The Treasury Single Account is a bank account or a set of linked bank accounts through which the government transacts all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time.
But former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government had issued such a directive last January, and beginning of April, former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwella said the federal government had successfully moved all MDAs accounts to the TSA.
